NEWZEALAND OR NEW ZEALAND?

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 235, 1 July 1944, Page 6

NEWZEALAND OR NEW ZEALAND?

Mr. Johannes Andersen’s Comment GROWTH OF LANGUAGE Commenting on recent discussions about the pronunciation and writing of the name for an inhabitant of New Zealand, .Mr. Johannes 0. Andersen, illustrating his argument from changes which have taken place with other words in the English language, suggests that the natural trend is for the evolution of the word Newzealander, spoken, as it already is, with accent on the second syllable only.

"Language is a curious thing; to meet our needs for new or fuller expression it grows as if it had life; a life dependent only on those who use it, yet more or less independent of control by them,'' says Mr. Andersen. "Take the matter of the hyphen, which has recently received some attention in your columns; some approbation, some' disapprobation. It may not be a necessary device, but it is used as an indication of a certain growth going on, and a change taking place. New words are always being wanted as thought widens in .scope and detail, and there are three principal ways in which new words are created; by special creation, like ‘flak’ and ‘jitter-bug’ ; by adoption from another language, like ‘tapu 1 or ‘mana’; and by compounding words already known and in use to give a new meaning or a definite variation of meaning. The hyphen introduces us to the third method. Some grammarian noticed that two words each with a certain meaning were used together to give a modified or particular meaning, and he indicated the fact by joining them with a hyphen. But the hyphen meant more than that; it meant that the two words were on. the point of becoming one wordlike two drops of quicksilver getting so close together that they suddenly become one. ‘‘An illustration will clarify this. A blackbird was once thought of simply as a black bird; but it was so conspicuous that it came to be regarded as the chief black bird, and after a time when it was spoken of or written about the two words were brought closer together, and in writing the hyphen was the indication of this. In speech the indicator was something more subtle and not so easily noticed. When used as two words, black bird, each word had its accent, and there was a distinct pause or break between the words; the hyphen indicated that there was no longer a pause between the words, ami that one of the words had lost ils accent. This can be made very apparent to anyone with a fair ear if he will say the following sentence aloud; ‘A blackbird is a black bird; but not all black birds are blackbirds.’ “It will be noticed that (he hyphen, having for some years given the warning, presently and without being missed disappears, and the two words become one, with a new definite meaning. So of goldfinch, redpoll, letterbox, postcard, and hundreds more. “There are many examples in the names of common New Zealand plants—Blue bell, blue-bell, bluebell; broad leaf, broadleaf, broadleaf; supple jack, supple-jack, supplejack. In a certain English flower the* change is more pronounced: crahe’s bill has become cranesbill. “As many as three or four - words may be linked up with hyphens: forget-me-not, love-in-a-mist, will-o’-the-wisp, but these rarely get further than the hyphen stage, at any rate in English. Scott did create a character, Mr. Dryasdust, and the epithet dryasdust is occasionally applied to a scientist too much desiccated with technicalities, and the same words forget-me-not are used for the same flower as one word in some European languages. “The same applies to proper names, though there the process of amalgamation is not nearly so rapid. The name Northumberland is compounded of three words. North, Humber, and land, and originally meant land north of the Humber. It will be noticed that in combining the words the first word had lost its last letter, and the cardinal points in two other words of very different final meanings—though of like windy origin—nor’-wester and sou’wester, have lost two. Newfoundland is likewise compounded of three words, as is New Zealand. “And here we come to the point. Zeeland, or Zealand, is a district of land in Holland not much above sea-level, and after it, New Zealand was named. It means New Sea-land, and in writing it has been referred to as New Sealand ; but the soft ‘z’ makes the better name. When the Government Printer inserts a hyphen in New Zealander, as your correspondent aggrievedly says he does, the Government Printer has perceived the drift of the language; he has seen that as Zeeland—like Zeehaen (sea-h.en), Tasman’s second ship—has become one word, and as New-found-land is one word, Newfoundland, so New Zealand has taken the first step in becoming one word in the amalgamating of Zee and ‘land.’ and is taking the second step by amalgamating the three words in Newzealand. And if the reader will listen to the way in which all speakers say the word, the name New Zealand, he will find that there is only one accent, on the ‘zea,’ and the slight pause that at one time separated New and Zea no longer exists: Newzealand is one word, a name, and no longer a description, so that Newzealander falls naturally and trippingly front the tongue.”